One of Poland’s most conceptual architecture firms has yet again married movement with technology. KWK Promes’ most recent clients were after a new family home that would react to the movement of the sun. The architects’ solution was a static building with one ‘wing’ that pivots to track the sun’s progress across the sky.
Quadrant House is named after the ancient navigational instrument that measured angles according to the stars. The all-white house comprises two stationary rectangular blocks of different sizes, one with a flat roof and one with a gabled roof. These two are at right angles to each other. Between them, a narrow, glazed wing containing the living room or indoor terrace travels on tracks over the lawn.
‘Depending on the time of year, it regulates the amount of sunlight in the spaces it adjoins', explains KWK Promes’ Robert Konieczny. ‘In the summer giving the desired shade, and in the winter allowing more sunlight inside.' And because the indoor terrace is on the move all day, the grass continues to grow beneath it.
The movement is achieved via silent mechanics, created by Comstal. Konieczny’s 20-strong Katowice-based firm has already worked with Comstal on a number of constructions, including its Safe House, the National Museum in Szczecin, and Konieczny’s Ark, a 2017 Wallpaper* Design Awards winner (in the Best Private House category) complete with drawbridge, which was created for the firm’s owner.
Meanwhile, the terrace’s frameless sliding windows are a result of six months of experimentation by window company Sky-Frame. The Swiss company came up with a bespoke motorised sliding system, meaning the room can be completely open on two sides. The views through all this glazing can be blocked out by the electric blinds. The interiors were created in collaboration with PULVA.
Konieczny is very interested in exploring kinetic architecture further – and not just in the residential typology. Alongside its many one-off house projects, KWK Promes is turning a slaughterhouse into an art gallery in the Czech city Ostrava. Inside, it too will have moving walls.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the KWK Promes website
-
Watches & Wonders 2025: preview Richemont’s latest innovations, on show at the Geneva watch fairDiscover eight enticing timepieces from the luxury group, showcased this week at the Geneva fair
-
Masters of midcentury modern design and their creations spotlighted in new book‘Mid-Century Modern Designers’ is a new book from Phaidon celebrating those who shaped the period and their notable creations, from furniture to objects
-
Drafting nine international artists, Gucci’s ‘90 x 90’ project transforms its silk scarf into a creative canvasPart of Gucci’s ‘The Art of Silk’ initiative, the project sees nine artists riff on the Italian fashion house’s most memorable motifs, from lush depictions of flora and fauna to its signature horsebit
-
The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw reinterprets the ‘white box’ in PolandThe Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw opens its minimalist doors to a design by Thomas Phifer and Partners
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneerBack in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
-
Sun-drenched Los Angeles houses: modernism to minimalismFrom modernist residences to riveting renovations and new-build contemporary homes, we tour some of the finest Los Angeles houses under the Californian sun
-
Modernist architecture: inspiration from across the globeModernist architecture has had a tremendous influence on today’s built environment, making these midcentury marvels some of the most closely studied 20th-century buildings; here, we explore the genre by continent
-
Gambit elevates the metal tube in this Polish HQ's 'surprising solution’A Katowice-based architecture studio creates Gambit, a whimsical head office for a Polish plastic piping distributor
-
Minimalist architecture: homes that inspire calmThese examples of minimalist architecture place life in the foreground – clutter is demoted; joy promoted
-
The iconic British house: key examples exploredNew book ‘The Iconic British House’ by Dominic Bradbury explores the country’s best residential examples since 1900
-
Loyle Carner’s Reading Festival 2023 stage presents spatial storytelling at its finestWe talk to Loyle Carner and The Unlimited Dreams Company (UDC) about the musical artist’s stage set design for Reading Festival 2023
